If My Feet Have Lost the Ground

Created and Directed by Torry BendVideo Design by Megan Reilly and Raquel Salvatella de Prada

Grace, a woman who spends too much of her life suspended in flight, finds a letter containing a living, beating heart in the airplane pocket in front of her. All she has to go on is a return address and a desire to keep this fragile thing alive. Visionary theater artist Torry Bend uses puppetry and video to create an achingly beautiful, dream-like, visual narrative.

The show uses Bunraku puppetry (a Japanese style of puppetry that requires three puppeteers visible to the audience), shadow puppets, toy theater, scenery, natural landscapes, aerial photography, and medical drawings to tell the story. The narrative plays out on a rotating stage constructed in a similar manner to a freestanding chalkboard; it is both earth and sky as it changes from shadow/projection screen to floor.